After missing almost a month’s worth of games with concussion symptoms, it sounds like Brad Richards might be back for the Dallas Stars tonight, according to Defending Big D and other reports. Coach Marc Crawford said that he is “scheduled” to play against the Calgary Flames.

Richards missed 10 games with post-concussion syndrome, making the much-reported trade scenarios that much more complicated. Of course, Richards eventually needs to play or the Stars will look pretty silly for balking at a trade (at least if he leaves Dallas as many expect).

No doubt about it, Richards is the greatest offensive catalyst for this team. The Stars went 5-4-1 in his absence, although they’ve gone 5-0-1 after dropping their first four games without the world-class playmaker.

It might be best to consider Richards a “game-time decision” since there seemed to be at least an outside chance he might have a setback. Crawford sent some mixed messages about how Richards would be integrated, first saying “if he’s in, he’s in” but later admitting that he probably won’t receive his typical amount of ice time.

The fifth-place Stars have been playing well lately, but naturally would love to reinforce their team with Richards. The margin of error is paper-thin, so they must get him back into the lineup without missing a beat.

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk has been the most difficult goalies to score against this season. Leave it to a high-level player like Leon Draisaitl to make it look this, well, “easy.”

Draisaitl scored his 13th goal of 2016-17 by capping this pretty give-and-go play with Benoit Pouliot. You can see the frustration from Dubnyk at the end of the tally, as if he was saying “How was I supposed to stop that?” (though probably with more colorful language).

Draisaitl came into Friday with five goals and three assists in his last five games, so he’s been almost unstoppable lately.